Rebel at heart
by writingforHim
Summary: Have you ever wondered what Leia was doing for those 18 years in between episode 3 and 4? I have! these are just some of my imaginings on the subject. They will all be complete short stories, maybe not in order, but I will try. This is my first fanfic, hope you enjoy! obviously I don't own star wars, i just love it!
1. Chapter 1

"Leia! Leia! Where are you?!"

The Princess of Alderaan was completely oblivious to the calls from her three Aunts. She was after all fighting a pirate! A big one, his huge Togarian fangs gleamed in the light and his vibro ax swung at her. "There is no escape for you!" he roared, but she was faster, drawing her blaster she turned and rolled, the ax missed her by millimeters, and she was up again in a second, aiming, firing and-"

"Leia!" the loud angry call got through to her suddenly, and with a squeak of surprise, she was suddenly back to the real world, and then she was falling.

With a crash, the ten year old princess fell out of the tree and landed in front of her Aunts in a pile of small branches and leaves. "Yes Aunt Roug?" she asked brightly, jumping up and trying to look like she had meant for that to happen.

"Honestly Leia! Look at you! You're filthy! And your lessons were to start half an hour ago!"

"Oh" Leia's face fell _lessons_. Lessons were a nice word for torcher preformed by her Aunts every day. She didn't mind regular school, which was taught to her by a private tutor, but _lessons_ were different, it was useless fluff that she was supposed to learn and memorize so that she could pull it out at just the right minute and bore even the most stuffy member of the Alderaan court. It was boring and had she mentioned useless?"

Well that was her life, one minute you were fighting pirates and saving your planet, the next you were doing _lessons_.

"No go get cleaned up. And we'll expect you to be in the lesson room in no less than fifteen minutes, and looking proper, you know we have a function tonight, so you need to be ready for that."

"Yes Aunt Roug" Leia grumbled, remembering as she left to walk until she was out of her Aunts line of sight, then, with another glance over her shoulder she ran. Running was much better than walking, it got you places so much faster, not to mention it was just plain fun.

And when you were a princess, who was being desperately shoved into the "proper princess mold by her aunts, you had to work hard to find fun that was "legal" as her friend Neena called it.

Leia entered the palace by a side entrance used by the servants, really she wasn't supposed to use them but she had discovered long ago that you could get places much faster through the small passageways and corridors that the servants used.

They had been designed long ago in the original building, before turbo lifts had been invented, so that the servants could take the shortest route to each room and be able to serve the royal family.

Now of course turbo lifts had been installed in the palace, but some times the servant's route was still shorter.

Leia popped out in the kitchen and darted through the hustle and bustle that was always going on there. She swiped a cookie as she went by, dodging a playful swat aimed her way by the head cook Tilla.

Shoving the cookie into her mouth in one bite in what her aunt Tia would call a deplorable lack of manners, she hopped into the small room service lift and punched in the number for Winter's room, hearing Tilla scolding her as the doors closed.

Tilla hated it when Leia used the lift, but it was more fun than the turbo lift, and as she was small for her age, she could still fit quite easily, her knees tucked up to her ears in the complete dark, as the lift, designed to carry trays of food to the different Palace suites whizzed up several floors.

The door slid open silently to reveal what should have been a tray of tea things but instead it held the princess, with a sneaky expression.

Winter, her friend and the daughter of one of her Father's aids, sat with her back to Leia, dutifully reading from her datapad and preparing for the test their tutor had set for tomorrow. That reminded Leia to ask her for the answers later, Winter had a holographic memory, she never forgot anything.

"Boo!" Leia sprang out of the small lift in a flurry of movement, dropping a leaf that had been caught in her hair on Winter's spotless floor.

"Ah!" Winter gasped, jumping, the datapad falling to the floor. "Leia!" she complained, picking up her datapad and frowning at her friend of the same age, "you've got to stop doing that!"

"Sure, I gotta go get changed and get ready for my Lessons" Leia made a face and headed out of the room towards her own. "Hey" she added, turning in the door way "how about telling me the answers to the test?"

"Leia, you know you have to do your own studying!" Winter scolded.

"I haven't had time!" Leia protested.

"Fine, meet me later tonight and we'll go over the test together" Winter said with a sigh, brushing her striking white hair back into it's perfect style, reminding Leia what she was supposed to be doing. The girl was nearly the exact opposite of the Princess, with her light coloring and perfect manners, natural grace and poise, still the girls were fast friends, not easy to part.

"Can't, we've gotta be at the function tonight" Leia reminded her.

"Oh, yes, well, see you there" Winter said, settling back into her soft chair to continue her study.

With a shrug, Leia skipped down the ornate hallway that led to her set of rooms, passing the huge windows that offered sweeping views of the beautiful Palace grounds and beyond, and the stunning marble pillars without noticing their beauty. She had grown up in it all and while not blind to the beauty, it was just home, she was used to it.

So were Neena and Winter, though when they had first come to live with them it had been different, they had bee shy and shocked, especially Neena. Winter, as Daughter of one Of Bail Organa's aids had been there before, and was already a friend of the princess.

When Winters Parents had both dies tragically, the orphaned girl had been taken into the Palace to live with Bail and his wife as a foster daughter. Basically she was part of the family, but she wasn't counted as royalty like Leia was. Neena, her younger friend was also lived in the palace under similar conditions.

In her room Leia was greeted by the usual clutter, that her Aunts complained about, but what made Leia feel at home, she couldn't work on a project without spreading everything out every where, and as she was currently working on drawing a map of the Galaxy for her school lessons and she had a lot out.

Tossing her soiled dress into the corner, Leia rummaged in her wardrobe and pulled out the first dress she found, noticing as she did that 15 minutes had already elapsed. Looked like she was going to be a tiny bit late.

She changed in record time and made for the lesson room, this time not by the servants hallways, she didn't really want her Aunts to know she used them, after all what they didn't know she did they couldn't forbid her to do.

She started down the ornate marble staircase, then stopped and went back up to the top, a quick glance around showed that there was no one watching. Smiling gleefully, Leia swung a leg up and straddled the banister. Taking a moment to catch her balance she then pushed off.

The ride was extremely fast and exhilarating, the only about it that wasn't fun was the end where she ended up sprawled on the floor. Still the ride was worth it, she giggled, sitting up, only to see one of the maids staring at her. _Bother._


	2. Chapter 2

" **You didn't see that, did you" Leia said to the maid. The young woman looked a little confused and surprised,** _ **she must be new**_ **.**

" **I don't think so" she said carefully.**

 **Well, how about while you're on your extra day off tomorrow you forget about it?" Leia suggested.**

" **Extra day off?" the maid asked, "is that bribery?"**

" **Sure, I guess you could call it that, but lets just call it a "reward"?" Leia suggested.**

" **Sure" the maid smiled.**

" **By the way, what's your name?" Leia asked.**

" **Lizzie" the maid answered, before heading off to continue her cleaning.**

" **Leia!" Roug bellowed and Leia jumped, she must be passed the lateness allotment. Picking up her skirts Leia dashed for the lesson room.**

 **Leia really did try to listen and learn what they were teaching her, but it was so hard. she just had to sit, and when she had to sit still, her mind wandered.**

 **Like now, while her Aunts were talking about voice moderation, or something, she was thinking about how nice it looked outside, what she was going to do as soon as the lesson ended and how soon her father would get home.**

 **If it had been something important she would have tried to listen more closely, but she knew how to be quiet, if she had to. Leia's thoughts drifted back to the lesson and she realized her aunts were onto another subject, grace, and the way a princess should walk. she watched as Tia demonstrated, and thought idly that her Aunt;s posture looked uncomfortable.**

 **her thoughts were soon wandering again, remembering back to the time before lessons. Back when her aunts just used every available moment to teach her a lesson on how to act and such. Leia had been fine with this, but then the lesson hour had been established, when she had asked why, she had been informed it was because she didn't listen to them.**

 **That had given her pause, she listened, didn't she? Well yes, but she did have a bad habit of forgetting certain things, every once in a while... So, while she didn't really love the lesson idea, maybe her Aunts were right. Any how, weather or not they were, she was stuck with it. her mother and father had placed her three unmarried Aunts, her fathers sisters, in charge of her education.**

 **Not that her parents never had a say, Bail Organa made sure to meet her tutors and see if he approved of them, but it was common for unmarried relatives in families to become the children's teachers. Family bonds were very strong on Alderaan.**

 **Tia's red dress rustled as she moved about the room, and Leia wondered what the three sisters had been like when they were younger, growing up with her father, hadn't they ever wanted to run free and play?**

 **her three Aunts were usually a unified front, but if ever she needed a little leniency, it was Celly she went to.**

 **The youngest, Celly was the one to give in, Roug, the oldest was even older than her father, and she was the most strict, her features were the sharpest as well, and Leia had once compared her to a Chia bird, because of her nose. her father had given her a very stern reprimand for that.**

 **Tia was the one you couldn't always tell about, the one you had to watch, would she cast her vote with Roug? or Celly? Leia wiggled, trying to scratch a place right between her shoulder blades that suddenly itched.**

" **Leia! do hold still!" Roug scolded, "you look like you have a bug up your dress." quickly Leia stopped, putting on a meek expression and hoping her Aunt wouldn't ask what they had been talking about. As Roug turned back to Tia, her bronze old republic style earrings caught the light coming from the window.**

 **Tthe slightly outdated jewelry was something that all three of the sisters liked to wear. personally Leia thought they were funny looking, but she was too polite to say so, at least to them.**

 **Just when Leia was beginning to focus back on the lesson, there was a light scratching at the door, and after a minute, it was nosed open and in bounded four little balls of fluff, they scampered strait for her Aunt Tia. Leia smiled, glad for the interruption, though Roug didn't look pleased.**

 **Tia greeted her pet pittons by name (Taffy, fluffy, Winkie, and ATAV). ATAV was definitely Leia's favorite. her Aunt had had the little pink ball of fluff since she was a little girl, and every once in a while Leia was sure Tia must have been a little bit like her to name her pet that.**

 **Carefully, Leia slid down in her chair and wiggled her fingers on the floor, Winkie crouched, ready to pounce, but "Leia! Are you listening?" Rougs sharp words sent the piton scurrying for cover under Tia's skirts, as if guilty.**

" **Yes" Leia straitened quickly and tried to look like she had been.** _ **How could she not listen? she was after all a captive audience.**_

" **What did I just say?"**

 **Leia hated that question "um, about what?"**

 **Roug sighed "I suppose that's enough for today, we are expecting an important guest of your fathers for dinner" Roug didn't have to add the** _ **so you had better be there and dressed appropriately**_ **. it was understood.**

" **Great!" Leia jumped up "I wanted to go for a walk with mother!" she started to scamper out of the room.**

" **Leia!" Roug's disapproving tone stopped her cold "is that how we talked about a princess leaving the room?"**

" **Well, only if she's in a really big hurry" Leia explained.**

" **A princess is never to appear to be in a great hurry, you have to be the one that is calm, that keeps your head, people look up to you. Now, show me how you should leave the room."**

" **Right" Leia grumbled inwardly, but put her nose in the air, minced out of the room. not exactly what her Aunts were looking for, but better. Then she spotted her mother down at the bottom of the stairs "Mother! I'm ready to go for he walk! I'll get my boots and be down in a minute!" she yelled.**

" **Alright Lelila" her mother called back up, using her nick name. Leia raced up to her room and found her boots just where she had left them. she was in such a hurry to get them on that first she put them on the wrong feet and had to start over again.**

 **On her way down she met Winter and Neena in the turbo lift. "Are you guys coming too?" Leia asked, hopping one one foot as she tried to pull on her second boot.**

" **Yep" Neena smiled "do you know where were walking too?"**

" **The park" winter answered for Leia, as she had fallen over, in her final effort to get her boot on. The lift's door hissed open with hardly a sound and the three girls joined Queen Breha.**

 **As the Queen of Alderaan, and wife of Senator and Vicroy Bail Organa, she was a very busy woman. And yet as long as Leia could remember, her mother had always made time for their "walks" some times they only walked around the gardens, and talked, or played, but most of the time they went to the park near the palace.**

 **The park wasn't far from the Palace set on a hill, and so when ever they went, they would walk, Leia and Neena, ran around the others in circles, ignoring the usual trail of footmen and handmaids that you could hardly get out of the palace without. Winter, walked, Winter always walked.**

" **Leia, Neena, please calm down, you have been outside before" Breha said, smileing fondly at the two girls. a little of their energy out, the two fell into step behind Winter and whispered about the guest that was coming and the test they had tomorrow.**

 **Breha made her way strait to the sea of bright spring flowers as soon as they reached the park and took a seat at one of the naturally carved rock benches. the people of Alderaan appreciated and valued life,therefore they attempted to leave their parks as untouched as possible. The wild flowers were her favorite spot.**

 **Normalyl Leia would use this time to be with her mother, but the outdoors had been calling her all day an she felt that if she didn't got out and do some running she was going to explode. Breha must have noticed too "Leia, you'd better go run around for a little while, or you'll never be able to sit through dinner tonight" she advised.**

 **Leia needed no second invitation and grabbed winters arm "come on Winter!" The two young girls took off. Leia heading strait for "her tree" it was a particularly tall gish tree, that had branches in all the right places for climbing. Reaching it, she grabbed onto the lowest branch and swung back and forth, smiling as the breeze teased her dark hair.**

 **Winter, mindful of grass stains, picked some flowers and called for Leia to join her, as her more adventuress friend climbed higher into the tree.**

" **Leia, aren't you up too hight? you should probably come down now!" winter called.**

" **This is great! I can see the Palace!" Leia yelled down. unless yo have ever climbed a tree you'll never know that scene of being so high and free as a bird as you look at the ground so far away and feel it try swaying beneath you in the breeze.**

" **Leia, what is this?" Winter asked, holding up a piece of cloth that looked suspiciously like Leia's skirt.**

" **It's my skirt" Leia confirmed.**

" **Winters mouth dropped open, forming an "O" that Leia could see from her perch. "You mean you're up there in your, your-" Winter couldn't finish the sentence.**

" **My bloomers?" Leia supplied.**

" **Yes!"**

" **Don't worry, they're perfectly modest, and besides, no ones around" Leia shrugged.**

" **But-but" Winter sputtered.**

" **Watch this!" Leia grabbed onto a branch over her head and swung for a minute.**

" **Leia! come down, you'll fall for sure!" Winter tried to sound commanding, but failed, only a handful of people could command Leia and Winter wasn't one of them.**

" **Hey Winter, some one's coming" Leia said, stopping her swinging. From her hight she could see a man walking down the path, he appeared to be a man of some means as he was dressed nicely.**


	3. Chapter 3

Winter quickly distanced herself from the tree, trying not to draw attention to her friend up above as the man approached. He greeted her politely and Winter responded, glancing furtively up at the tree without thinking.

The man followed her gaze, high above in the tree Leia waved. The man shook his head "having servant trouble?" he asked Winter.

"Oh no, that's actually-" Winter quickly stopped herself "Uh, yes, just a little bit" she gulped and smiled feebly.

"Allow me to help you miss" he bowed.

"Oh no, that won't be necessary" Winter said quickly.

"Nonsense, I wouldn't want a young lad like your self to have to do it alone!"

"Leia rolled her eyes, boy was he corny! If Winter were older and he younger she might have suspected him of flirting. Sadly Winter liked to read those mushy love stories and probably though it was romantic to be saved. Had their situations been reversed, Leia could have sent him packing!

Winter stood back helplessly as the man approached the tree. "You there! Maid! Get down here at once, what do you mean climbing up there and leaving your mistress?"

Leia couldn't help but see the hilarity of the situation, and would have liked to give the man some trouble, just for his way of treating her. But she could tell Winter was mortified, so decided to end it quickly. "Yes sir!" she snapped a salute, which he probably couldn't see from her height, and quickly began climbing down.

"Thank you sir" Winter managed, mortification written across her every feature.

"It was my pleasure" the man turned on his heel and continued on his walk as Leia dropped softly out of the tree next to Winter. The two regarded each other for a minute, then both burst out laughing. It would no doubt be another one of those little instances that would go down in history that her Aunts would never hear about. Hopefully.

"Well, now that you're finally out of the tree, how about we talk about the test you haven't studied for?" Winter suggested when their laughter finally died.

Leia made a gagging noise in the back of her throat "how can you think of school at a time like this? This is my free time, when I don't have to think about school, rules, proper princess lessons, or Aunts or anything!" Leia said throwing her arms out and spinning. She motioned to Winter "come on, I'll race you to the lake!"

"Leia! Winter! Time to go!"

"Oh no" Leia stood quickly from where she had been fashioning a muja cake out of mud. As often happened at the lake shore, try as she might, she couldn't stay out of the water, and with water came mud. A little slip and she had fallen into a puddle, from there it just escalated from there, now she was rather messy.

Winter, who was still some how clean (maybe it was because she had only put the flowers on top of the cakes instead of baking them.) Leia exchanged a guilty glance with her friend and they hurried to find Breha and Neena.

Holding hands they ran through the tall spring grasses in the direction of the voice. Leia stopped short when she saw a small squad of storm troopers, marching theough the park, their white plastoid armor gleaming. _Not here!_

Leia had seen storm troopers before of course, but hardly ever on Alderaan, and never in the park! "Come on Leia!" Winter tugged her hand and Leia followed her, albeit slower, looking back over her shoulder at the emperor's minions.

"Why do they have to be here too?" she said in disgust.

"Leia! Be careful what you say!" Winter warned "they're probably just an escort for some imperial governor or something."

"Well why are they on _our_ planet! We've governed ourselves for hundreds of years, what do we need the emperor's minions for?"

"Shhhh!" Winter hushed her, even though there was no one to hear.

"Why should I?" Leia asked indignantly "according to our constitution page 5 article 2, I and all other citizens of Alderaan still have the right to free speech!"

"Winter stopped to look at her friend "How do you manage it?" she asked, looking impressed.

"Manage what?" Leia puzzled.

"Well one minute you're playing in the mud, but then the next you're spouting laws and acting like a princess! Even if you don't look like one" Winter finished with a grin.

"There you are girls" and suddenly Breha was there, Neena right behind her, the younger girls eyes widened "stars Leia, what happened to you?" she asked.

"I could ask the same thing" Breha said sternly "What have you been doing?"

"Well" Leia glanced down at her muddy dress "I short of fell into a mud puddle."

"Ah ha" Breha tried to hide a smile "well we'd better get home and get you cleaned up in time for dinner."

On the walk home Leia fell behind, still thinking about the troopers she had seen. She knew her father and mother disagreed with the emperor, in fact she knew a lot of people did, even as a child she could still hear the murmurs about the leader of the empire. If so many people thought he was wrong, didn't want him to rule, why was he still the emperor?

Why did they have to be under his rule? Yes she knew the senate had voted him in, created the empire, but why? Even her father had voted for him, she remembered asking why one night, as she sat on his lap.

Bail had smiled sadly at her answering that it would have created mare difficulties for not just him but for the whole planet. If the emperor had suspected his loyalty he would have put more than himself in danger. Leia hadn't really understood what he was saying, even now she didn't understand it all, but she accepted it.

So back to her question, what would happen if they all, Alderaan as a planet decided to rebel? To say "no more?"

"Princess Leia!" the handmaiden took her hand and hurried her up. "You have a lot of washing to do when we get back your highness, you'd better keep up!"

Leia picked up her pace and joined her friends. Neena leaned in close, her dark hair brushing Leia's cheek "so, what _really_ happened to you?" she asked, eyes sparkling with mischief.

"I told you, I fell in a puddle" Leia protested.

"Right, but what else happened?"

"Well after I fell in I was already dirty, so I played in it a little more" Leia grinned.

"I knew there was more to the story, too bad I missed out on the fun Neena sighed.

When they reached the Palace grounds Breha's comlink signaled she took the message and then turned to the girls "our guest is here already, I need to go and entertain him until your father gets home. You three run along and get ready for dinner. You Leia, get cleaned up properly" she ordered her daughter before separating from the group.

Winter laid a comforting hand on Leia's shoulder "would you like us to go with you when you meet your Aunts again?"

"Well, actually" Leia grinned "if I go through the servant's entrance and up to my room I will be able to avoid them and at least get washed first."

"Princess Leia, you really have a sneaky mind" Neena grinned.

Leia shrugged modestly "it comes from practice!"

The three girls went through the kitchen entrance, dodging several delivery people carrying supplies for the upcoming meals. They begged a cookie off of Tilla, the head cook before taking the servant's passage to one of the main halls leading to the life tube that would take them to the bedrooms.

Unfortunately, Leia's luck didn't hold out, she had forgotten that her Aunts would be with the guest in the tea room right there off of that hall way. And right at that moment Roug, Tia and Celly came out of the room and met the Princess.

The guilty party froze while three gasps of shock were uttered. "Princess Leia Organa!" before they could launch into their lecture the same noble man that Winter and Leia had met in the park immerged from the reception room and joined them in the hallway. Leia's three Aunts quickly tried to shield the princess, but it was too late.

He walked right over to greet the princess, having heard her Aunts exclamations. Leia's three Aunts reluctantly stepped aside, and if Leia wasn't fearing for her life she would have thought their expressions were really funny.

"Ah! Princess Leia, it's a pleasure to meet you again!" Leia opened her mouth to reply, but then realized he was addressing winter and not her! Perfect! She might be able to escape yet!

"It is a pleasure to see you as well" Winter said gracefully "but I'm not-" Leia poked her quickly and Winter coughed, changing her sentence "er, that is, I'm not sure I know you're name."

"Sir Kenston, at your service" he replied formally, his gaze shifting to Leia behind Winter. "It appears your maid has fallen in the mud" he raised an eye brow.

"Oh, she probably jumped in, and she's not the-" Neena began with a giggle, but Leia hastily shushed her. Thankfully that was when Breha returned and captured the guests attention once again. As soon as they had left, Roug, Tia and Celly whirled upon the erring princess, only to find she was gone… Unfortunately for Leia Tia spotted her slinking away in the back ground and arrested her escape.

"Princess Leia Organa! We need to have a talk!" Leia slumped after her Aunts as they left to have their "talk". Something told her it was going to be a long evening.

If there was anything she hated more than lessons, it was sitting though a long boring meal with some pompous politician or member of the Alderaan court, still, if he though Winter was the princess, maybe, just maybe this evening would turn out amusing!


	4. Chapter 4

"Ouch! Ow! Ahhh!" Leia cringed as her aunts preformed yank the comb through the wet tangled hair torture. "Ow Tia, that hurts" Leia grumbled, covering her hair with her hands.

"If you had been acting like a princess it wouldn't have gotten tangled! Now hold still and let me fix your hair."

"A princess must know how to dress properly for an occasion" Roug instructed. "Remember you want to look your best, your father will be returning from his trip tonight."

Leia immediately brightened, then slumped back down, causing Tia to part her thick chocolate hair crooked. "Please Leia, hold still!" Tia said in exasperation.

"Yeah, he's coming home but I'll hardly get to see him he'll be busy talking to his guest." Leia said gloomily.

"Your father always makes time for you" Celly reminded her comfortingly, brushing wrinkles out of a pink gown from Leia's wardrobe.

"Not pink!" Leia moaned, seeing the dress. It wasn't that she didn't like the color pink per say, but that dress, in particular, well, suffice it to say she had never likes it, no matter how fashionable it might be.

"You look good in pink" Roug said in a voice that closed off the subject to argument.

"Isn't there something a little less elaborate?" Leia asked hopefully, she hated that pink dress, mostly because of the full skirt that got in the way all the time. Her aunts ignored her protests and helped her into the gown. "I think it's too tight!" Leia complained, squirming "I should put on another one."

"Honestly Leia, you say that about all the dresses you dislike, now don't make excuses. Sit still and let me finish your hair." AT-AV came darting through the open door and jumped into Leia's lap when she patted her knee. There the little furry creature started batting her hair.

"Stop AT-AV" scolded Tia, but the pitton ignored her, hopping up onto the princesses shoulder and playfully attacking her elaborate hair style. Tia removed the pitton from the room while Celly and Roug put the finishing touches on Leia rather like an artist does on a painting.

"There! Now you look like a princess again!" they stood back to admire her and Leia felt a little bit like a dress up doll.

One of her mother's handmaids stuck her head into the bedroom door "Princess Leia, your father is home."

"He is!" Leia leapt up, and ducking around her aunts dashed head long down the stairs and turning the corner flew into Bail Organa's arms.

"Oh Leia! You're getting too big for me to pick up!" Bail protested, making no move to put her down. "My, it's nice to come home and find my princess looking like one, I'll wager your Aunts had something to do with that. Last time I came home you looked like you had been herding nerfs all day!"

"Breha who had been standing in the doorway, laughed at that, and coming closer gave her husband a kiss around the girl in his arms. "I should say they had, they have been upstairs scrubbing Leia for the last two hours getting her ready for dinner."

"Two hours? Don't tell me you've been up in the mountains again, climbing trees?" Bail asked with a chuckle.

"It was an accident!" Leia vowed "well, mostly." This made her father laugh louder.

"Dinner is served" a cheerful serving droid, DV-8 announced to the family.

"Okay my princess, I'll hear all about it later" Bail set her down and held out his arm for his wife "come my Dove, and you too princess"

Winter and Neena were already in the formal dinning hall, standing respectfully behind their chars and dressed appropriately. Leia's three Aunts entered and the foot men seated them, Bail seated Breha before turning to his guest "Ah Kenston, good to see you again, let me introduce you to my wife, Breha, and my daughters, princess Leia-" Bail started to turn towards Leia, standing next to him, but sir Kenston spoke up.

"Oh, I've already met the rest of your family, I was very impressed with your daughter princess Leia, and I wanted to compliment you, she has exceptional manners and grace for a child her age."

Bail raised his eye brows "thank you, lets take our seats" Bail took a seat at the head of the table.

As he passed her, Kenston glanced Leia up and down giving her a bit of an odd look, which she figured was because he still thought she was the maid. Thinking no more of it as she took her seat next to Winter, who was trying to tell her something, silently motioning towards her skirt.

 _What?_ Leia mouthed.

"Psst! Your feet!" Winter whispered. Leia leaned over and looked beneath the table cloth. Oops, her two bare feet hung beneath the hem of her dress, apparently in her haste to greet her father she had forgotten to put on her shoes!

Neena peeked under the table as well, and when she saw Leia's shoeless feet, she had to stifle a giggle, Winter started coughing in an attempt to hide her own amusement. Her friend's laughter caused Leia to choke on her water. A quelling look from Roug ended their amusement.

While the grown ups talked, the three girls studiously avoided looking each other in the eye and ate their dinner. It was the common belief of Leia's aunts that when guests were present, children should be seen and not heard, unless directly addressed of course.

As Leia carefully cut her meat into tiny bites, she tried to think of the best way to get a pair of shoes on her feet before her aunt's saw, and thus avoid another lecture.

The best way seemed to be to finish her dinner before every one else, and then leave the table and return with shoes!

She ate her meal as fast as possible without seeming to have fewer manners than a starved Bantha.

"Well that settles it, I'll be glad to have your name on the petition." Bail said, finishing his political busyness with Sir Kenston, the conversation drifting to other things. "I'm curious, where did you meet my daughter?" Bail asked, raising his glass to his lips and taking a drink.

"Oh, we happened to meet in the park, she was trying to get her maid out of the tree."

"Her maid?" Bail turned to Leia "what maid was in the tree?"

"Leia hastily swallowed a bite of food and answered her father "none father, we only brought Kima, and she didn't climb any trees."

Sir Kenston's eyes widened and in surprise and he paled slightly " _she_ is your daughter?" he gulped.

"Yes, why?" Bail asked, wiping his mouth with a silk napkin to hide his amusement at the younger man's expression.

"Oh, nothing, I was just confused it seems" Kenston said deftly changing the subject. Poor guy, Leia stifled a smirk at his expression.

Finishing her meal, Leia wiped her mouth, she sent Celly a silent look, asking to be excused and leave the table.

Celly shook her head. Great, now how was she supposed to get some shoes? And she needed them even more now that Sir Kenston knew that she was the princess, and not a crazy domestic girl, and she didn't want to embarrass her father and mother.

Catching Winter's eye, she began slowly sliding down in her seat, she was between Winter, and her Aunts were engrossed in the conversation so that they didn't see her slowly sinking out of sight.

Sir Kenston happened to glance at her when she had sunk down to her chin, she gave him a brilliant smile and he quickly looked away. A moment later she slipped under the table. Okay, so now to get to the door on the other side of the room and then up the stairs to her room, unnoticed.

Good thing the table was so long! On hands and knees Leia started forward, her dress rustled loudly. Great! She knew she shouldn't have warn this dress! To keep from alerting every one to her presents, she had to scoot forward on her knees, instead of crawling.

Leia shrank away from the pairs of feet (all with shoes) on either side of the table. She had to wait what felt like ten whole minutes while Celly swung her legs, and she couldn't squeeze past. Celly finally stopped, and Leia, who had discovered that the temperature underneath the tale was much warmer than that above, scooted by.

Finally! The end of the table! Whew! This should really be a new endurance sport, the 100 foot scoot. Leia wiped damp hair off her forehead and peeked out from underneath the floor length table cloth, then stealthily crept behind the long closed drapes that hung over the huge picture window.

Peering out the end of the drapes, Leia judged the distance to the corner that would lead her to the stairs. Scoot, scoot, scoot! She quickly struggled to her feet around the corner and dashed up the stairs to her room. There she immediately spotted the pair of shoes her aunts had set out for her to match her dress and quickly put them on. Then, she had to wonder if it had really been worth all that. She could have just sat through a long boring lecture in, and in a comfortable chair mind you, but no, she didn't want to embarrass her father and mother.

Standing at the top of stairs, Leia contemplated how to get back, there was no way she could return to her seat without being seen unless she was going to crawl back the way she had come, and she wasn't. So, remembering all she could from her Aunts lectures, she swept down the stair case and into the dinning room, with what she hoped was "regal bearing" and gracefully took a seat.

Aunt Roug, Tia and Celly, who apparently hadn't noticed she was gone, stared at her open mouthed, in a very unladylike fashion. Leia daintily took a sip of water and smiled sweetly.

"Ahhh, it's good to be home" Bail Organa took a seat on the edge of Leia's bed. Leia snuggled under the covers and smiled, considering the night a successes.

"How long will you be able to stay this time?" she asked.

Bail frowned "not long I'm afraid, I have some busyness on several other planets." Leia hung out her bottom lip in a pout.

"Will you miss me then?" Bail said with a smile.

"Only as much as a starving Hutt misses food!" Leia said with a dramatic sigh.

Bail chuckled, his normally grave look lifting "you and your saying" he shook his head fondly, then added, "Now tell me, you were the maid in that tree, right?" Leia only smirked. Bail shook his head again "What am I going to do with you Lelila?" he asked, tapping her on the nose and standing from the bed.

He left the room with a whisper of the long cloak he wore. Leia knew he was headed to see her mother; they would stay up late talking. He always tried to make the best of what he called his "lightning visits".

The end

This is the first of many to come! I hope you enjoyed it! I would love to hear your thoughts on the story, good and bad, jut please be nice.


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